Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:That was a fun game. Belisle added another number to what Jester was referring to in an earlier post but he has been so good it's bound to happen at some point.

Buxton man this guy has had a fantastic turnaround at the plate.

Yeah, really fun game...great to be 3 up with only 16 to go!

Interesting numbers provided by Jester, but I share Monster's curiousity about how these numbers might look since the AS break. There are several relievers I feel quite comfortable with right now...Businetz, Hildenberger, Belisle and Rogers for starters. And Pressly is beginning to make me feel a little better. I'm still not sold on Duffey or Boshers, but Boshers was fine last night. When you are comfortable with 4 relievers, you're in a pretty good position. I hope they can keep it up.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:That was a fun game. Belisle added another number to what Jester was referring to in an earlier post but he has been so good it's bound to happen at some point.

Buxton man this guy has had a fantastic turnaround at the plate.

Yeah, really fun game...great to be 3 up with only 16 to go!

Interesting numbers provided by Jester, but I share Monster's curiousity about how these numbers might look since the AS break. There are several relievers I feel quite comfortable with right now...Businetz, Hildenberger, Belisle and Rogers for starters. And Pressly is beginning to make me feel a little better. I'm still not sold on Duffey or Boshers, but Boshers was fine last night. When you are comfortable with 4 relievers, you're in a pretty good position. I hope they can keep it up.

Boshers and Duffy are guys are not great but I think both are guys that don't suck. If they are your other guys instead of the guys you have to lean on I think you can live with that. I wonder if Gee could find a nice role as a reliever. He said somewhat recently he didn't care what his role was he just wanted to stick with that role. He was a pretty successful starter really the main issue with him has been staying healthy. He could end up being another piece to this pen. It's also nice having a few extra arms because it's September. Tonkin is a somewhat interesting and maddening guy.

Here is an interesting article about Gibson. Honestly so can't make sense of the nifty graphs but there seems to be some pretty good mechanical insight.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=32777&utm_content=buffer3430f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

After a poor performance especially defensively yesterday the Twins put together and other offensive explosion. Mauer with a grand slam was a pretty sweet moment.

Gibson gave up that early HR and then I think he didn't get some strikes call ed and he may have gone back to his old ways. He clearly wasn't effective and was frustrated. Molitor and the coaching staff left him out there maybe because they had faith in him or they weren't examined with their options (Sledgers didn't look like he would have been a good option) but he pitched well for a couple innings and with a healthy lead did a whole lot more than you would have expected after those first couple innings and getting them through the 6th.

monsterpile wrote:After a poor performance especially defensively yesterday the Twins put together and other offensive explosion. Mauer with a grand slam was a pretty sweet moment.

Gibson gave up that early HR and then I think he didn't get some strikes call ed and he may have gone back to his old ways. He clearly wasn't effective and was frustrated. Molitor and the coaching staff left him out there maybe because they had faith in him or they weren't examined with their options (Sledgers didn't look like he would have been a good option) but he pitched well for a couple innings and with a healthy lead did a whole lot more than you would have expected after those first couple innings and getting them through the 6th.

Yeah, that was a great comeback from 5-0. I've been using the word "resilient" all season, and yesterday was another great example...two disappointing losses and an early 5-0 deficit, and they battle back to steal a win. Just amazing!

I continue to question Mollie's decision making though, and tonight it was his decision to have Granite bunt in the 8th inning. Betances has frightening stuff, but he has a difficult time some nights getting anywhere close to the plate, and when he hit the first batter up (Kepler) it seemed likely it was one of those nights (and this was proven later as he walked consecutive batters). And yet he elected to give up an out by asking Granite to bunt. Betances is wild, and Granite has a great eye...let the kid try to coax a walk against a guy who can't find the plate! This move by Mollie isn't as dumb as some of the head-scratchers he has done in the past couple weeks, but I still think it was ill-advised...and may have cost us another game.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:After a poor performance especially defensively yesterday the Twins put together and other offensive explosion. Mauer with a grand slam was a pretty sweet moment.

Gibson gave up that early HR and then I think he didn't get some strikes call ed and he may have gone back to his old ways. He clearly wasn't effective and was frustrated. Molitor and the coaching staff left him out there maybe because they had faith in him or they weren't examined with their options (Sledgers didn't look like he would have been a good option) but he pitched well for a couple innings and with a healthy lead did a whole lot more than you would have expected after those first couple innings and getting them through the 6th.

Yeah, that was a great comeback from 5-0. I've been using the word "resilient" all season, and yesterday was another great example...two disappointing losses and an early 5-0 deficit, and they battle back to steal a win. Just amazing!

I continue to question Mollie's decision making though, and tonight it was his decision to have Granite bunt in the 8th inning. Betances has frightening stuff, but he has a difficult time some nights getting anywhere close to the plate, and when he hit the first batter up (Kepler) it seemed likely it was one of those nights (and this was proven later as he walked consecutive batters). And yet he elected to give up an out by asking Granite to bunt. Betances is wild, and Granite has a great eye...let the kid try to coax a walk against a guy who can't find the plate! This move by Mollie isn't as dumb as some of the head-scratchers he has done in the past couple weeks, but I still think it was ill-advised...and may have cost us another game.

You might be interested in listening to Wetmore and Mackey's podcast (both say they are anti-bunting guys podcast where they cover the fans questioning Molitor's bunting. They bring up some interesting numbers including a bunch of advanced stats..

Garcia had a good outing against the team that bought and sold him. Go figure.

Man I thought the Twins were gonna blow open the game in the 8th and Chapman came in and finished of the game. 103mph on that strikeout of Mauer.

Well...that Yankees series didn't end on a good note. I'm sure the Twins were just trying to psych the Yankees out making them way overconfident for that 1 game playoff. Well done.

Oh well on to the Tigers and go Cleveland...when the are playing other possible wildcard teams.

The Twins took care of business last night by easily beating a team that just isn't very good...and we get to play them 3 more times before going to Cleveland, and then close with 3 at home against the hapless Tigers. The Rangers are red hot (they've won 4 in a row) and are now are biggest threat. But they still have to play Houston and have two very bad starters in their rotation, so our chances of a play in game in New York a week from Tuesday look really good.

Nice outing by Mejia last night, and our most effective pitcher recently (Gibson) goes today. 14 hits last night against Detroit's terrible pitching, and we get to see these awful pitchers 6 of our final 9 games. Keep it up!

longstrangetrip wrote:The Twins took care of business last night by easily beating a team that just isn't very good...and we get to play them 3 more times before going to Cleveland, and then close with 3 at home against the hapless Tigers. The Rangers are red hot (they've won 4 in a row) and are now are biggest threat. But they still have to play Houston and have two very bad starters in their rotation, so our chances of a play in game in New York a week from Tuesday look really good.

Nice outing by Mejia last night, and our most effective pitcher recently (Gibson) goes today. 14 hits last night against Detroit's terrible pitching, and we get to see these awful pitchers 6 of our final 9 games. Keep it up!

It was only a few days ago the Twins playoff chances were a bit more worrisome. I won't feel completely comfortable till it's basically over but they are 5 games over .500 and there is 10 games to go for .500 teams Angels and Texas. The Twins are in the drivers seat for sure.

Mauer is a machine. His batting average is up to .311. It's pretty awesome.

I don't know what role he would have but it seems like for a team that needs pitching it makes sense to keep him around if he is interested in that. I'd like to see him in the Pen and see what he could do in a ful season there. This is a guy that's been a pretty successful major league pitcher injuries are more of what has derailed him than anything else. He is 31 but that's not old.

Great night last night with a Twins win and Rangers and Angels losses...we're now 3 1/2 up on both with only 8 to play! If we go 4-4 the rest of the way (not a difficult task with 5 more against Detroit), Texas or LA would have to go 8-1...that just isn't going to happen. I've blocked out Tuesday 10/3 for a playoff game in NYC!

Another good start from Gibby...if we can get by the Yankees, I feel comfortable with Gibby going against the Indians.